Alsace to Venice

No matter what route you pick, you will need to book separate tickets. IMO, your best night train route would be the direct CNL train from Munich to Venice, departing at 21:02 and arriving at 06:38. To get the best discount fare, book up to 92 days in advance on the Bahn site. If you travel Strasbourg-Stuttgart-Munich, departing at 13:47 and arriving at 17:31, you can get a discount fare as low as €29 by booking well in advance on the Bahn site. (The standard 2nd class fare is €76.) You'll have time for a leisurely dinner in Munich. Or you can travel Strasbourg-Offenburg-Karlsruhe-Munich, departing at 14:52 and arriving at 19:14. You can get the same €29 discount fare for Offenburg to Munich by booking on the Bahn site. The fare for Strasbourg to Offenburg is €7.70. No discount for booking in advance.

For the City Night Line train from Munich (21:03) to Venice (6:38), if you book a discounted Europa-Spezial fare online from the Bahn well in advance, you can get an Economy Double for €99/p. Strasbourg to Munich takes only 3¾ hrs via TGV/ICE with a change in Stuttgart. You can book that trip in advance with another Europa-Spezial fare from the Bahn for only €39/p. Booked as Strasbourg to Munich with a Europa-Spezial fare, you'll go directly from Strasbourg to Stuttgart without stopping in Offenburg (the TGV doesn't stop in Offenburg). Leave Strasbourg in the afternoon (13:47) and get to Munich at 17:31. That gives you 3½ hrs for dinner in Munich and plenty of time to catch the CNL train to Venice. There are also 4 or 5 Eurocity trains during the day that make the Munich to Venice trip in about 6½ hrs. Only the 11:31 train from Munich goes all the way to Venice. You can get a fare as low as €39 for that train. Other ECs from Munich only go as close as Verona for €39. You'd have to get an Italian train from Verona to Venice at an extra fare.

Actually, the Europa-Special fare is valid for anywhere in Germany to any station in/outside Germany as long as one leg is on an express train (EC/IC/ICE) of the Bahn and the final leg starts in Germany. So, you could start in Offenburg at 7:25, change in Karlsruhe, and go to Munich at 11:11, then take the 11:31 EC (EC 87) over Brenner Pass (and get to see it in the daylight) direct to Venice at 18:10. Potentially, that entire trip would be one €39/p fare, but it contains a lot of popular legs, any of which can sell out at the lowest Europa-Spezial fares. Right now, for the first day of availability, Feb 9, the lowest fare is already €99. The fully refundable standard fare for that entire trip (Offenburg to Venice) is €147,60. You could also make a connection leaving Offenburg at 16:30, changing at Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, and getting to Munich at 20:27, with 36 min to catch the CNL train. Fares for this connection start at €149/p in an Economy Double. For all of these Offenburg-Venice connections, you must put in Munich as a stopover, or you'll get routed up the Rhein to Basel and through Switzerland, and won't get the Europa-Spezial fare.

This helpline has been a lifeline in many cases and this proves to be the same. Thank you all for your help! We hope to someday become seasoned European travelers and to provide this valuable service to someone else. Good work team!